Lactic acid is an organic acid that has a number of commercial uses, for example in food manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, plastics, textiles, and as a starting material in various chemical processes. Lactic acid is commonly produced by fermentation of sugars, starch, or cheese whey, using microorganisms such as Lactobacillus delbrueckii to convert monosaccharides such as glucose, fructose, or galactose, or disaccharides such as sucrose or lactose, into lactic acid. The broth that results from the fermentation will contain unfermented sugars, carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, and salts, as well as lactic acid. Some of these materials cause an undesirable color. The lactic acid must be recovered from the fermentation broth before it can be put to any substantial use.
A number of processes have been developed in the past to recover lactic acid or other organic acids from fermentation broths. Some of these processes involve precipitation of salts followed by decomposition of the salts, or extraction with certain organic solvents or water-insoluble amines.
For example, in Baniel U.S. Pat. No 4,275,234, an acid is recovered from an aqueous solution by extracting the solution with a water-immiscible organic extractant which comprises at least one secondary or tertiary amine dissolved in a water-immiscible organic solvent. The resulting organic extract is separated from the residual aqueous liquid, and subjected to a stripping operation with an aqueous liquid for back-extracting at least a substantial part of the acid from the organic extract into the water, while leaving substantially all of the amine in the organic phase.
In King U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,492, a carboxylic acid is recovered from an aqueous solution by contacting the aqueous solution with a substantially water-immiscible but water-wettable organic solvent. Two phases are formed, one a carboxylic acid-depleted aqueous raffinate and the other a carboxylic acid enriched water-wet solvent extract. The phases are then separated and the carboxylic acid-enriched water-wet solvent extract is dewatered. This dewatering decreases the solubility of the acid in the extract solvent and generates a carboxylic acid-containing bottoms product from which the acid can be recovered as a precipitate.
However, the recovery processes which have been used in the past have tended to be relatively expensive, because of having a large number of steps, poor efficiency of recovery, or for other reasons. Therefore, a need exists for improved processes for recovery of lactic acid and other organic acids, which can provide desirable efficiency of recovery at a reduced cost.